Authorities in Tanzania have called off the search for missing passengers after an overloaded ferry capsized this week.

Government official Ali Juma Shamhuna said the final figures showed that 69 passengers died and that 77 were still missing - resulting in a total of 146 people now presumed dead.

The spokesman added that the ferry, MV Skagit, which capsized on Wednesday while travelling from the country's economic capital Dar es Salaam to the island of Zanzibar, was carrying 291 passengers despite the fact the ferry was certified to carry only 250.

He said a total of 145 people were rescued.

Last September, more than 200 people were killed when a crowded ferry travelling between two islands of the Zanzibar archipelago sank.